Page 42 of Slumming It

"With what?"

"Your theatrics."

"I'm not being theatrical," she said. "Youare. You insulted my parents."

I'd insultedher, too. But apparently, this wasn't the thing pissing her off. Her loyalty might've impressed me if I didn't have an agenda of my own. "Look, I'm not gonna sit here all day. So decide. The clock's ticking."

"No,youdecide. And by that, I mean to apologize, just like I asked."

"Except you didn't ask. You demanded. Big difference."

"What are you saying?" Her tone grew sarcastic. "That if only I'd asked you nicely you would've?"

"Hell no."

She threw up her hands. "So, what difference does it make?"

"It doesn't," I said. "But you still need to decide."

Her eyes narrowed. "You know what? You don't deserve my help, but I'm gonna tell you something, anyway – for my sister's sake more than yours."

What her sister had to do with this was anyone's guess, but hey, I'd play along. "Oh, yeah? What's that?"

"In the room where you're staying…at the hotel I mean…there might be something weird under your bed."

Nowthatwas funny. "Like a maid?" I gave her a long, rude look. "I already found her."

Her jaw visibly clenched. "As I've already told you, I'm the housekeeper, not the maid. And besides, you didn't find me at all."

What a crock."I didn't?"

"No. You laid in wait like a spider in the hallway."

Well, she was right aboutthat.But I still would have found her even if she hadn't come out into the hall. The truth was, I'd known something was up when the clerk had been so insistent that I leave the room.

I was no dummy.

And Emily, in her apparent eagerness to elude my discovery, had been the perfect kind of prey – far too trusting.

In that shabby hallway, it had been no accident that I had been standing out of peephole range. I smirked at the memory. "And you fell right into my web." This was more true than she knew, and if I were a jollier type, I might have laughed at the irony.

"Yeah, well goodie for you," she said. "But just so you know, I could've stayed under your bed for hours, and you never would've known."

The reminder wasn't a good one. I still didn't know how many hours she'd spent under there – or what she'd seen or heard in the process. The more I thought about it, the less I liked it. "Goodie foryou," I mocked. "Now tell me something Idon'tknow."

"Alright. Here's something. I heard a rumor that someone was going to plant a listening device under your bed." Her tone became earnest. "That's what I was doing under there – trying to find it. Otherwise, I wouldn't have gone into your room at all."

Well, that was a new one."So that's your story, huh?"

"It's no story. It's the honest truth." She straightened in her seat. "And even though I didn't find anything, I figured you should know."

Yeah, right.

I didn't believe her.And I sure as hell wasn't going to thank her. But Iwascurious in spite of myself. "And why's that?"

"Well, obviously, so you could find it…or be careful or whatever. The people who did it – or whomightdo it, well…they're really awful."

If she was trying to scare me, she had the wrong guy. "Yeah, well I'mmoreawful," I said, giving the door a pointed glance. "You done?"